I've been brewing kits and mini mashes a few years now but only about 12-15 batches total. About half have been recipes of my own design and about half have been kits, all have been bottled in the standard way with the standard recommended amount of priming sugar.
I've noticed a trend. Many of my batches turn out too dry and over carbonated. Some more than others. Most are drinkable but some have bordered on offensive. I always wait for the beer in secondary to complete fermentation, I've waiting 3 weeks for some and 4 for others but in no case is there the slightest activity in the airlock for many days when I bottle. No signs of infections, just too carbonated. I add the standard amount of priming sugar for a 5 gallon batch. But even doing everything by the book I can never seem to retain any residual sweetness. The carbonation one one recent batch was downright harsh and the large popping bubbles reminiscent of a soft drink.
My typical routine is to bottle, leave them alone about a week, then begin refrigerating and drinking a few at the time, as needed, until they are all consumed. The longer they sit unrefrigerated of course the more carbonated they get, and I understand that, but I was under the impression that the priming sugar was the correct amount to produce a bottle that would ferment to the correct level of carbonation and sweetness for that particular beer, and then stop. Instead what is happening seems to be that the yeast continues to eat away at available sugar until it passes a critical point, the point to which the carbonation/sweetness balance tips over to an undesirable ratio, and then the beer is less friendly than it was.
It seems the proper thing to do in light of my experience would be to stop the bottle conditioning at a certain point by refrigerating all the bottles, therefore suspending the beer at the correct sweet/carbonation level. But oddly I've never heard of anyone doing this. All the instructions all seem to suggest you just add the normal priming sugar, bottle, and your good to go. No one ever says "be sure to refrigerate after 1 week or your beer will be over carbonated". But it's obviously still a very yeast-active environment and seems to be reaching a critical point about a week after bottling for me.
I just bottled a new batch 3 days ago into 16 oz PET bottles and I am testing the firmness each day. As soon as I get to the correct carbonation level I plan on refrigerating the whole batch.
Does anyone with more experience have any other suggestions or comments on this, or is there anything you would do differently?
Thanks,
Casey
I've noticed a trend. Many of my batches turn out too dry and over carbonated. Some more than others. Most are drinkable but some have bordered on offensive. I always wait for the beer in secondary to complete fermentation, I've waiting 3 weeks for some and 4 for others but in no case is there the slightest activity in the airlock for many days when I bottle. No signs of infections, just too carbonated. I add the standard amount of priming sugar for a 5 gallon batch. But even doing everything by the book I can never seem to retain any residual sweetness. The carbonation one one recent batch was downright harsh and the large popping bubbles reminiscent of a soft drink.
My typical routine is to bottle, leave them alone about a week, then begin refrigerating and drinking a few at the time, as needed, until they are all consumed. The longer they sit unrefrigerated of course the more carbonated they get, and I understand that, but I was under the impression that the priming sugar was the correct amount to produce a bottle that would ferment to the correct level of carbonation and sweetness for that particular beer, and then stop. Instead what is happening seems to be that the yeast continues to eat away at available sugar until it passes a critical point, the point to which the carbonation/sweetness balance tips over to an undesirable ratio, and then the beer is less friendly than it was.
It seems the proper thing to do in light of my experience would be to stop the bottle conditioning at a certain point by refrigerating all the bottles, therefore suspending the beer at the correct sweet/carbonation level. But oddly I've never heard of anyone doing this. All the instructions all seem to suggest you just add the normal priming sugar, bottle, and your good to go. No one ever says "be sure to refrigerate after 1 week or your beer will be over carbonated". But it's obviously still a very yeast-active environment and seems to be reaching a critical point about a week after bottling for me.
I just bottled a new batch 3 days ago into 16 oz PET bottles and I am testing the firmness each day. As soon as I get to the correct carbonation level I plan on refrigerating the whole batch.
Does anyone with more experience have any other suggestions or comments on this, or is there anything you would do differently?
Thanks,
Casey
